Expanding the Light

At Lakewood United Methodist Church, our mission is to "Expand the Light by seeking, serving and sharing the message of Jesus Christ."

We seek the message by learning together, nurturing each other and deepening our journey with programs like our FaithTrax Sunday School, Youth Group and adult Bible Studies. As we grow in our faith, God cultivates in us the fruits of the spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

We serve our community and the world with such programs as the Gardner Food Pantry, the Ozark Mission Project and our

Prayer Shawl ministry. We serve God by compassionately serving others. In His own words, Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." (Matthew 25:40)

And we share the message through our three diverse worship services, our hospitality and our outreach communication (like this website). We strive to make our worship authentic and alive, to connect people to God and to one another. The Greek word for church, ekklesia, means "called out of this world," and refers to the calling of people from their ordinary lives to gather together in sacred time and place.

Lakewood was established in 1955 and for over 50 years, we've been a place to grow in Christian love, a church where members explore their faith and challenge themselves to a greater commitment to Christ. We recently built a new Christian Life Center to house our our children's and youth ministries and our contemporary worship service, to complement our beautiful traditional sanctuary (with the steeple on top!).

If you have any questions about Lakewood UMC at all, or would like more information, please don't hesitate to contact us. We'd love to hear from you.